Knook Castle
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 Shown within Wiltshire
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| Location | Wiltshire |
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| Region | Southern England |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: 51°11′43″N 2°03′31″W / 51.195371°N 2.058473°W |
| Type | sub-rectangular univallate hillfort |
| Area | 1.75 hectares (4.3 acres) |
| History | |
| Material | Chalk |
| Periods | Iron Age |
| Site notes | |
| Archaeologists |
Sir Richard Colt Hoare, William Cunnington, Petrie, Grinsell |
| Public access | footpaths |
Knook Castle is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located on Knook Down, near the village of Knook in Wiltshire, but within the civil parish of Upton Lovell. It has also been interpreted as a defensive cattle enclosure associated with nearby Romano-British settlements. It is roughly rectangular in plan with a single entrance on the south/southeast side, but with a later break in the wall on the western side.
John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) described Knook Castle as follows:
Knook Castle is an ancient single ditched entrenchment, of about 2 acres; is supposed to have been originally a British village, and afterwards a Roman summer camp; and has yielded Roman coins. Traces of another ancient British village are to the N. "The site of these villages", says Sir R. Hoare, "is decidedly marked by great cavities and a black soil; and the attentive eye may easily trace out the lines of houses and the streets, or rather the hollow ways, conducting to them. Numerous tumuli and barrows are in the neighbourhood."
The site and surrounding downs are easily accessible by public footpath, with the Imber Range perimeter path running east to west immediately to the north of the site. Further to the north lies Imber Range, one of the military firing ranges of Salisbury Plain.
Nearby, some 300m to the north of the hillfort, and slightly further to the north east, are the sites of two Romano British settlements of Knook Down East and Knook Down West. They lie approximately 600m apart and are linked by an earlier linear ditch or hollow way.
Knook Down East covers approximately 4 ha (9.9 acres) and is well preserved around a central trackway feature that runs north to south, with 11no. surrounding scooped platforms and enclosures. Knook Down West covers approximately 11 ha (27 acres) and may comprise two distinct settlements. The northern side of the site has a central area off of which are five trackways that serve a number of enclosures. On the southern side of the site are three enclosures. Between the two areas lies a field system, with the north and south sides linked by a trackway, which follows the line of a pre-Roman linear ditch.
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Wikipedia